On May 21, J. F. Oberlin University’s chancellor, Toyoshi Satow, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Academic Exchange and Educational Cooperation at the University of Alcalá, one of Spain’s leading universities, with that school’s rector, Professor Doctor Fernando Galván.

The University of Alcalá’s roots go back to 1293, when it was founded as a medieval “Studium Generale.” Located in Alcalá de Henares, a history-rich city in central Spain, it was elevated to the status of a modern university in 1499 by the country’s regent, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, himself a graduate of the school. In the centuries since then, it has served as a model for universities around the world and particularly in Latin America. It is especially well known for the academics who studied there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among them Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuit Order together with Francisco Xavier.